CLUB-MOSS FAMILY 



43 



Family 7. LYCOPODIACEAE. 



Club-isioss Fa.mii.v 



Somewhat moss-like, terrestrial or chiefly epiphytic, rigid to soft-herbaceous 

 plants of upright, trailing, or pendent growth, the stems usually with numerous, 

 apparently alternate branches or repeatedly dichotomous, leafy nearly throughout : 

 leaves small, simple, 1-nerved. continuous with the axis, mostly uniform and mul- 

 tifarious, usually imbricate. Sporangia uniform, 1-celled, 2-valvate, reniform or 

 orbicular, compressed, solitary in the axils of ordinary foliar leaves or of aggre- 

 gated bractlike sporophylls. Spores uniform, very numerous, minute, globose, 

 smoothish or variously sculptured. Prothallia fleshy, mostly hypogean, monoe- 

 cious. 



Two genera, the following and Phylloglossum (monotypic), of Australia. 



L LYCOPODIUM L. Sp. PI. 1100. 1753. 



Perennial ; leaves arranged in 4-16 ranks, reflexed to ascending, closely appressed. or 

 nearly adnate, often crowded. Sporangia solitary in the axils of some of the nearly uni- 

 form leaves along the stem, or in the axils of more or less modified scalelike bracts, these 

 compactly imbricate in sessile or pedunculed, terminal spikes (strobiles). Spores copious, 

 sulphur-yellow. [Name from the, Greek, meaning wolf's-foot; of doubtful significance.] 



About 200 species, mainly of temperate regions. About 10 species occur in other parts of the United 

 States. Type species, Lycopodium clavatum L. 



Sporophylls not associated in terminal spikes. 1. L. selago. 



Sporophylls closely associated in terminal spikes. 



Stems without leafy aerial branches, the peduncles arising directly from the prostrate stem; sporophylls 



similar to the foliar leaves; sporangia subglobose. 2. L. inundatum. 



Stems with numerous erect or assurgent leafy aerial branches, the spikes terminal upon some of these; 

 sporophylls bractlike, very unlike the foliar leaves; sporangia reniform. 

 Ultimate aerial branches flattened, the leaves in 4 rows, conspicuously adnate, those of the under row 

 greatly reduced. 3. L. complanatum. 



Ultimate aerial branches not flattened, the leaves in 5 or more ranks, scarcely adnate, nearly alike. 

 Main stem deeply hypogean, horizontal; aerial branches few, treelike. 

 Main stem prostrate or creeping; aerial branches numerous, not treelike. 

 Leaves of the ultimate aerial branches in 5 rows. 

 Leaves of the ultimate aerial branches in many ranks. 

 Spikes sessile. 

 Spikes pedunculate. 



4. L. obsciirtim. 



5. L. sitchense. 



6. L. annotinum. 



7. L. clazatu)>i. 



1. Lycopodium selago L. Fir Club-moss. Fig. 92. 



Lycopodium selago L. Sp. PI. 1102. 1753. 



Stems rigidly erect from a slender curved base, 



several times dichotomous, the densely foliaceous 



branches nearly vertical, usually forming compact 



level-topped tufts 4-20 cm. high; leaves uniform or 



nearly so, very numerous, crowded, usually ascending 



or appressed-imbricate, narrowly deltoid-lanceolate or 



subulate, acute, lustrous, yellowish to light green 



(sometimes darker and spreading), usually entire, 



those bearing the sporangia (below the top) shorter 



than the others; plants frequently gemmiparous. 



Moist, rocky situations, Arctic-Alpine Zone; Alaska to Lab- 

 rador and Newfoundland, south to Oregon (Mount Hood). 

 Montana, Michigan, northern New York, and northern New 

 England, and in the mountains to North Carolina; Greenland; 

 Eurasia. Type locality, European. Several habital and geo- 

 graphic forms are recognized. The plant, of moist coniferous 

 forests of Oregon and Washington, 20-30 cm. high, with dark, 

 spreading leaves, is apparently a luxuriant state of var. patens 

 (Beauv.) Desv. 



